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# Kali Linux Bids Adieu To 32-Bit Builds
- URL: https://itsfoss.com/news/kali-linux-32-bit-builds-end/
- Published: 2024-10-28T11:12:19.000Z
- Updated: 2024-10-28T11:12:19.000Z
- Description: It's time for 32-bit Kali Linux to go.
- Author: Sourav Rudra
- Tags: Development Updates, News, #Import 2025-11-08 21:15

i386, or [IA-32](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IA-32?ref=itsfoss.com), is the 32-bit version of the [x86](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86?ref=itsfoss.com) instruction set architecture (ISA), which has been around since 1985 when Intel introduced the [80386 microprocessor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I386?ref=itsfoss.com). It was at the forefront of personal computing for many decades, before [64-bit computing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64-bit%5Fcomputing?ref=itsfoss.com) became mainstream.

Over the years, many Linux distributions have moved away from i386/32-bit builds owing to its outdated state considering everyone has 64-bit hardware now, and it appears [Kali Linux](https://www.kali.org/?ref=itsfoss.com) has joined that club as well.

📋

I have used the terms i386 and 32-bit interchangeably, it denotes the ISA, not the microprocessor.

## 32-Bit Builds Are No More: What Happened?

![an illustration showing a microprocessor graphic with x86 written on it against a red backdrop and the kali linux logo towards the bottom right](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2024/10/Kali_Linux_i386_EOL.jpg)

Image: [Kali Linux](https://www.kali.org/blog/end-of-i386-kernel-and-images/images/banner-end-of-i386.jpg?ref=itsfoss.com)

Recently [announced](https://www.kali.org/blog/end-of-i386-kernel-and-images/?ref=itsfoss.com) by the developers, 32-bit builds of the Kali Linux kernel and images have been discontinued, with no new i386 installer images, live images, or pre-built VM images to be released in the future.

The transition has already begun, as today's [weekly builds](https://www.kali.org/get-kali/?ref=itsfoss.com) don't include any 32-bit images, and the forthcoming 2024.4 release is expected to follow suit.

This move was a long time coming, seeing that the last 32-bit CPU models came out back in 2007, and Kali Linux's upstream, Debian, [decided to drop](https://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2024/09/msg00220.html?ref=itsfoss.com) i386 kernel packages late last year.

In the announcement, they added that:

> Kali Linux is based on Debian, so it follows that Kali Linux also drops i386 kernel and images. This is going to be effective for weekly images starting 2024-W44, to be published on Monday 28th of October. It’s already effective for Kali rolling users.

However, they have ensured that **i386 packages will remain in the repositories**, allowing people to run i386 programs on 64-bit (*amd64*) systems without any issues. They are also providing i386 [Docker images](https://hub.docker.com/r/kalilinux/kali-rolling/tags?ref=itsfoss.com) for those interested.

*💬 Will you miss 32-bit builds of Kali Linux? Looking to switch due to this? Let me know!*

**Suggested Read** 📖

[Digital Ocean Introduces One-Click AI Model Deployment (Feat. Hugging Face)Digital Ocean’s popular 1-click feature deployments now support AI models as well. Interesting!![](https://news.itsfoss.com/content/images/size/w256h256/2022/08/android-chrome-192x192.png)It's FOSS NewsSourav Rudra![](https://news.itsfoss.com/content/images/2024/10/digital-ocean-introduces-1-click-ai-deployment.png)](https://itsfoss.com/digital-ocean-one-click-ai/)